The Biggest Mistake People Make about the Tibet Train

Tibet Train Pulling into Lhasa

While researching and taking the Tibet train (the Qinghai-Tibet Railway) as a way to travel to Lhasa, we have learned a lot, which we would like to share with you to save you making some common mistakes.

A lot of people still think that taking the Tibet train from Beijing will acclimate them to Lhasa’s high altitude.

It makes sense that if you start at near sea level in Beijing and two days later you end up in Lhasa, at 11,975 feet/3650 meters, then the journey is a great way to acclimatize, right?

Well, no, it’s not really that simple, and if you really want to be acclimated before going to Lhasa or other high-altitude Tibetan cities, the bottom line is that you need to spend some time at an intermediate elevation. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention5 says this: “The process of acute acclimatization to high altitude takes 3–5 days; therefore, acclimatizing for a few days at 8,000–9,000 ft before proceeding to a higher altitude is ideal.” If you are short on time, as the great majority of travelers to Tibet seem to be, here is one option:

In Other Words…

Over two-thirds of the first 24 hours on the train are spent well under 1524 m/ 5000 ft, which is too low to be useful for adjusting to high altitude. 3

After 20 hours into the journey, at Xining, the train begins to climb into more serious altitude, and you spend the next ten hours reaching Golmud. (See this post on how to avoid altitude sickness.) The climb from Xining to Golmud, goes a bit high, reaching 3248 m/10,656 ft, but the general trend is a gradual ascent that is helpful for acclimatizing.

Unfortunately, most of the rest of the train journey is at altitudes actually higher than Lhasa’s.

Over 80% of the Golmud-Lhasa section is at an elevation of more than 4000m / 13,123 ft), with the highest point, just on the Lhasa side of the Tang La Pass, reaching 5072 m/16,640 ft).

Although this might sound like a good way to get used to Lhasa’s altitude, it’s not really. The key to getting used to high altitude is to ascend slowly, and the train is, unfortunately, climbing very high quite fast.

Not only is the train climbing, obviously, much more rapidly than this, but also, some of the trains end up passing through the highest point on the journey during the second night.

The passengers then are likely to have a rough night because, according to Curtis, “respiration decreases during sleep, exacerbating the symptoms” of the onset of the milder forms of altitude sickness: “headache, dizziness, fatigue, shortness of breath, loss of appetite, nausea, disturbed sleep, and a general feeling of malaise.” Learn more in our post on the symptoms of altitude sickness.

But wait, don’t they pump extra oxygen into the train?

Yes, actually, the Qinghai-Tibet railway train cars are equipped with two ways to deliver oxygen. First of all, oxygen is pumped in when the train reaches the higher altitudes, raising the concentration of oxygen in the air from the normal 21% to about 25%.

Plus, there are oxygen outlets that individuals can plug into with a tube fitted with a nosepiece. (The trains are not, as Chinese travel agency sites often claim, pressurized.)

An article called High Mix: Oxygen on the Train6 on the “High Road to…” blog notes that the extra oxygen creates conditions basically equivalent to being at Lhasa’s altitude during the higher parts of the journey.

This accounts for the fact that a number of travelers and tour guides report sleeplessness and other symptoms of mild altitude sickness, just as they would in their first days in Lhasa.

The bottom line is that, in terms of acclimatization, “the main advantages of taking the train lies in the time spent between Xining and Golmud.” (From High Mix: Oxygen on the Train), about 10 hours of the whole trip.

So, over the course of the ~ 44 hour journey from Beijing to Lhasa, you’ve got almost a whole day at altitudes too low to count, about 10 hours worth of helpful acclimatizing, and the rest of the ride at the equivalent of Lhasa’s altitude.

It clearly doesn’t add up as a great way to progress slowly up to Lhasa altitude.

Does this mean I shouldn’t take the train from Beijing, or Shanghai or Chengdu, to Lhasa?

No, not at all. In fact we do recommend taking the train instead of flying in to Lhasa, because the flight is considerably worse in terms of acclimatizing. By flying, a small percentage of people are actually at risk of getting pulmonary edema. (See the post on symptoms of altitude sickness. )

We just hope to let you know that the train is not a magic bullet for acclimatizing to Lhasa’s altitude, and that you may need to consider further strategies to help you acclimatize.

What are my Options?

A whole bunch of travel agents and expert Tibet travelers suggest one of these two routes:

Xining’s altitude is high enough to help you begin to acclimate but not so high as to make most people feel sick.3 If you stay 2-3 days, before moving on to Lhasa, it will help you to acclimate. While you’re in Xining you can take a few interesting day trips. (See this post on itineraries to help prevent altitude sickness in Tibet.)

A major reason to take the train, it has become clear to us, is for the views. The views in the first day from Beijing are apparently not that interesting. By all accounts the best views are between Golmud and Lhasa, and if you take the right train from Xining, you can see the best bits in daylight.

One downside of staying in Xining is that the city itself, frankly, is not that interesting, if you are primarily interested in a majorly Tibetan experience. But the good news is that it is a jumping off point to visit the Amdo region of Tibet. It is the largest city on the Tibetan plateau and diverse in its population, but only 5% Tibetan.

By the way, though Golmud is a bit higher than Xining, at 2809 m (9216 ft), no one seems to recommend moving on there for another “step” in acclimatizing, except the Chinese researcher Wu, who clearly wasn’t looking at things from a touristic point of view. Not to malign the place without having ever been, but Golmud doesn’t sound like a place that most folks want to hang out. It might not even be possible to do this. Several reports online indicate that you can’t get off the train at Golmud and/or that you can’t buy a ticket from Golmud to Lhasa. Some report that you can get a ticket but that it is very expensive due to scarcity. The bottom line is that no one recommends doing it.

2. What about flying in to Lhasa and taking the train out of Lhasa at the end of your visit?

Like many people we have flown into Lhasa ourselves (see a brief description of our acclimatization process when flying in to Lhasa below 4), and suffered from altitude sickness for sure, but took it easy for 3 days and were fine. However, you should be aware that for a low percentage of people, the risk of flying in to Lhasa directly from low altitude can result in pulmonary edema, which is potentially fatal.Here’s a comment from Vistet, over at “the high road to…” blog, where he has a much more complete discussion of these issues, including good links to some studies: “…people do get AMS both on flyins and the nonstop Beijing-Lhasa run , but it’s worse in every way on the flyins . More (twice as many) get AMS, more get it in worse forms, and need more treatment in Lhasa.” It’s very well worth a read of Vistet’s observations on the studies of this subject, with his bottom line being that, it seems to us, that people taking the train do definitely have significant risk of getting AMS to some degree, but that greater and more serious risk is associated with flying in, due to the 2% incidence of developing pulmonary edema in those who fly, compared to 0% in those who took the train. This is a serious consideration. It is impossible to know who will suffer from altitude sickness, and who might be at risk of developing pulmonary edema. Learn more about the risk of getting high altitude sickness here >>

If you do decide to take the chance and fly in, which we do not recommend, there are some advantages:

In the high season— late May to early October — surcharges on tickets for Lhasa-bound trains, due to corruption, can get so high that it can be cheaper to fly.

If you take the train out of Lhasa, in the morning, you have the best chance of seeing the nicest views of the journey, the 14-hour Lhasa to Golmud section, especially the section between Lhasa and the Tang Gu La pass, in daylight.

After all this research, what do we plan to do?

Well, it depends on what kind of trip we will be on:

If we have plenty of time, and our goal is to explore Amdo a bit, it sounds like a great option to fly to Xining, and use it as a base for trips to some of the major sites, like Kumbum monastery, Kokonor (Qinghai Lake), and then some of the less well known, and reportedly more interesting, monasteries. You could then slowly head out to the stunning nomadic lands of Amdo. After a couple of weeks in Amdo, we would head back to Xining and take the train to Lhasa, better prepared for the next step in altitude.

If we had just a little extra time, we would fly into Xining, and spend two nights there, with day trips to Kumbum, Kokonor Lake, or, if you don’t want a big tourist scene, to some of the local monasteries. Then we would catch the Tibet train to Lhasa. Then take one of the newer, safer trips to Everest Base Camp from Lhasa.

If we had very little time, we would suck it up and fly in again, with Diamox, and take the train out, to catch the experience and the views, and possibly jump off at Xining, to fly on elsewhere. We would do this partly because we have flown directly to Lhasa before and were hit by AMS but only relatively mildly. Knowing now that 2% of people are risk to pulmonary edema on flying in, we might have made a different decision that first time.

That’s just us, of course :-) Please consult your doctor before you head off for any of these.

We hope this helps in your decision making! Please let us know what you think.

If you have knowledge of or experience with this train, and you can correct or expand on anything in this post, please comment below.

Comment from our friend Losang at the Land of Snows

Losang from the Land of Snows blog had some great responses to questions we ask him about this. Thanks, as always, Losang!

There have been a handful of people having died from the train (usually dying shortly after arriving in Lhasa), but this would be a very, very small percentage (less than 0.00001%) and many of these people were in poor health to begin with.

In my opinion and experience (20+ times on the train), the earlier trains departing Xining are good for those who want to see the area between Xining and Golmud in Qinghai (good, but not the absolute best scenery the route has to offer). These earlier trains departing Xining, particularly the 12:14pm (Z323) and the 2:05pm (Z917) only allow passengers to see the TAR from Nagchu to Lhasa in aylight….the final stage of the train.The afternoon train departing at 3:20pm (Z21) will allow passengers to see the area between Xining and Qinghai lake in daylight hours, as well as a little west of the lake. It will then alow passengers to see the TAR starting from just north of Nagchu all the way to Lhasa. Passengers won’t really see any of the wilderness of Kekexili (Hoh Xil) as they will go through it at night. This is the region where Tibetan antelope and even wild yaks can be seen.The later trains departing at 19:51pm (Z265) and 21:35pm (Z165) leave Xining when it is usually dark. So, guests will not see any of the route from Xining to Qinghai Lake, Golmud and the next 2 or 3 hours south of Golmud. However, guests who get up early the next morning (which they most likely will anyway on the train), can see a lot of the wilderness beauty of Kekexili and will see all of the TAR in daylight hours.So, it is really hard for me to say what the BEST train is to take as they all offer good views. As the train takes about 22 hours, it is impossible to see everything, of course, in the daylight. I personally recommend the later trains, which allow for more viewing of Kekexili and all areas of the TAR.

To me, it is so funny because for years the guidebook writers described the route from Golmud to Lhasa as being “barren, bleak and monotonous”! Those writers must have been blind! It is an incredible route, much of which crosses through the remote western portion of Yushu Tibet Autonomous Prefecture and the Kekexili (A Chen Gang Gyab) Nature Preserve, which is where most of the wildlife live along the route as well as countless high, snow-capped peaks.

1. We always try out best to give correct attribution to images we find online, but this one is so widespread that we can’t with any certainty say where it first came from. If you know, let us know :-)

2. Note that all numbers are approximate. We used Wikipedia (which we are sad to say is often inaccurate when it comes to Tibet topics) for altitudes, and compiled the trip hours form various online timetables and reports.

3. According to the Outdoor Action Guide to High Altitude at Princeton, altitude is “defined on the following scale High (8,000 – 12,000 feet [2,438 – 3,658 meters]), Very High (12,000 – 18,000 feet [3,658 – 5,487 meters]). Most people can go up to 8,000 feet (2,438 meters) with minimal effect.”

4. Every person is different, but in our case, it wasn’t pleasant, but it also wasn’t that bad. We flew into Lhasa, and at some point during the first 24 hours, developed a bad headache, and felt weak, weird and breathless when moving around. For one whole day, we just mostly lay around. We didn’t sleep well and added tiredness to the weak and weird on the second day, but began walking very slowly around, with lots of rest, and soaking up the atmosphere. By the third day we were much better, and except for panting like lunatics with any stairs, we were basically fine to walk slowly around, visit the Jokhang and Ramoche temples, easy stuff like that. This was a trip without Diamox. On another trip, one of us used Diamox and experienced significantly less altitude sickness symptoms, though there were unpleasant side effects of tingling in the fingers and toes, probably due to too high a dose of Diamos. See the medications section on our How to Avoid Altitude Sickness post for more info on Diamox.

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KTM to Lhasa by air both ways in 1996; healthy and gf very healthy. Our self treatment was to drink more water than we thought we could and keep drinking at least hourly. I lasted five days with no symptoms and then had hallucinations (of Karmapa) during day six nap. GF was more than usually grumpy, but no direct symptoms. Departed to KTM by air on seventh day. Note, we were in KTM for a week before departure to Lhasa.

KTM to Khasa both ways in 1998 by tour bus (about 25 seats); healthy and alone. I did the water drinking routine and felt light headed as the bus stopped at the highest point on that road. No other symptoms for 12 days. I was in KTM about 20 days prior to bus trip. Youtube k4vud channel has part of the driving video.

Personally, I would not take any trip to Lhasa now: too old at 72, multiple health problems and pills, and I do not want to see what the occupiers have done to the city. Changes from 96 to 98 were so strikingly bad that 18 yrs later, with the Jokhang under threat , sacred lakes being drained to make electricity, and Han outnumbering Tibetans on the street means I am so glad I saw the city when I did; likely 96 was the end of the end. Certainly, I would never spend money to the occupiers.

We totally understand the concern about spending money with the occupiers, Charly, but strongly encourage folks to take trips with Tibetan-owned agents who use Tibetan-owned hotels and patronize Tibetan-owned restaurants as much as possible. In this way, travelers can support the Tibetan people who so badly need our business, and see for themselves the situation in Tibet. Thanks again, we love to hear readers’ experiences.

I fully agree with yowangdu – Tibetans need tourists to earn their living and get a glimpse of the outside world. We just returned from a Tibet tour, all the way from Xining, via Lhasa, Mt Kailash and Ali to Kashgar in Xinjiang. Wewere accompanied by a wonderful Tibetan guide, who spoke very good English (trained himself by guiding tourists for ten years) and had a tremendous knowledge of his Tibetan culture. I think we were able to give each other something very valuable. And as soon as you travel outside Lhasa and a few other bigger towns chances are high that you eat and sleep Tibetan, further supporting the lovely Tibetans (and even in Lhasa we stayed in a Tibetan owned hotel).
It’s true, the Han Chinese increase in numbers, and the Chinese authorities rule with a very strong hand like in Orwell’s Brave New World, but they invest a lot in the restoration of the Tibetan monuments (which they heavily damaged decades ago) and (as long as they do not start troubles) the Tibetans are still allowed to follow their Buddhist ceremonies (partly because of the tourism, of course).
So travelling through Tibet is STILL a great experience …

The problem with Wu’s train study is the missing context : people do get AMS both on flyins and the nonstop Beijing-Lhasa run , but it’s worse in every way on the flyins . More ( twice as many ) get AMS , more get it in worse forms , and need more treatment in Lhasa . Thus is just from comparing the nonstop run with flyins from Beijing , every extra night at 2000+ meters will be an added bonus.

I’ve posted a comparison on the studies made up to now on my blog below, with some more options for acclimatizing :

Hello
We are looking to take the train from Lhasa to either xining or xian and then fly either from xining or Xian.to Shanghai . I heard there is quite a long distance from the train to an airport in Xining. What do you recommend in order to catch a same day plane?

actually Xining is not that big…
It would be around (1)150 local currency for a taxi ride or (2)negotiate with private car drivers for somewhere between 80-120 local currency and there are so many of them waiting at the train station and airport ( if you know how to speak Tibetan especially Amdo dialect or chinese— the locals regardless of being tibetan or chinese or Hui Muslim are all very friendly and kind) or (3) 21 local currency for a bus ride from the train station to the airport ( bus terminal is about 500 meters walk from the train station)…. Given the traffic situation, allow around 2 hours time for traveling.
If you are not overly tired from altitude and well rested on the train, same day flight is no drama.
Hope it helps

I didn’t read all the posts, so I’m not sure if anyone has covered doing this trip with kids. When miy kids were 11and 8 (in 2006) the three of us took the train from Chengdu to Lhasa. It was a wonderful experience. Doing this with kids is not for the faint of heart, though. On our trip, there was not a single other person on the train who spoke English – inability to communicate is a bigger deal when you travel with children. I know a little travel oriented Chinese so we did okay but there were times I wished I had planned better. My biggest piece of advice: don’t eat in the dining car. The food from the trolleys they push around the train is great. I would by a single plate of food and we’d all share with plenty left over – so it’s much cheaper, too. (Please keep in mind that this info is from 2006.)
I took Diamox to lessen the chance that I’d have a problem with altitude sickness and carried drugs to treat altitude sickness with me in case my kids had a problem (drugs were IV so I also had the appropriate gear for IV access.). My kids did fine and I left my supplies with a clinic in Tibet when we left.

I was in a group of 24 traveling from Chengdu to Tibet. Spent a couple of nights in Chengdu/Leshan and then flew to Lhasa. I had a mild headache on the 1st day in Lhasa and took it easy as per advice from my tour leader but inexplicably I couldn’t acclimate for the rest of the trip in Tibet! I had almost daily headaches and finished off a whole pack of Panadol to no avail. The worst came when my group spent a night at Everest Base Camp near the Rongbuk Monastery. I got the worse of my headaches and spent the whole day feeling miserable and giddy. It wasnt until we got back to Lhasa where I could really take it easy that my headaches went and I had a nice time shopping and walking around in Lhasa.

The oxygen canister that our Tibetan tour guide gave me didn’t seem to help. I wish I had prepared better for the trip rather than leave it to chance.

Thanks so much for sharing your experience Robin. It is truly critical to take more steps than just resting on the first few days, despite this being what most tour agents tell you. We appreciate hearing from you!

I am taking a medication called aspirin on a daily basis .
I am planning to take Diamox too for AMS. But, the problem is aspirin and DIamox do
not go well taking together. So, I was advised to stop taking aspirin before taking Diamox.
But, I am worried that by stopping aspirin, there is a higher chance of having stroke.
This is a big concern.
Any ideas how to tackle this?

typically you take 81 mg aspirin daily or 325 mg 1 or 2 times a week for stroke prevention.
that compares to 10 to 12 tablets of 325 daily for high dose for arthritis – it is much much lower.
the problem with diamox is seen with high dose aspirin, as it slows its metabolizm and can contribute to aspirin toxicity.

eat lots of carbohydrates at altitude. you get 10% more ATP energy per oxygen from carbohydrates, as opposed to protein or fats. also beware alcohol at altitude. you get intoxicated more easily.
you start the diamox 2-3 days in advance, it basically lets you hyperventilate without chaniging your blood pH.
the diamox makes you feel better so you can do more, but you are still just as susceptible to acute pulmonary edema – my son go this trying to climb in Bolivia. So take it easy and dont exercise too hard the first few days.

Thank you so much for this interesting and useful advice, Dr. Findley! Would you be interested to write a guest post for us on the topic of altitude sickness? (Assuming that we can vet your medical credentials, which we assume we can!)

You stated back then that you would try to find out which train is best for daylight views. Anything you found out yet? We are going to take the 3:05 pm train from Xining, and the timetable says Golmud at midnight, Amdo at 8:39 – do you have any idea if we will be at Tanngula during daylight?

Hi Markus — you are very welcome :-) Sorry but we have still not found out. A great source for ideas on this kind of thing is Lobsang at the Land of Snows. Check him out on Facebook, and he can very likely help. Please tell him hi for us :-)

From my memory, you pass kekecili at night time and you can’t see much outside as the lighting is poor, Tangula is around early morning— you might get to have relatively clear view in summer and autumn season as the day light hours are longer, in winter and spring you will start seeing daylight after Tangula.from dining to Lhasa, my opinion is the right hand side has better view but left side isn’t bad either. Have fun.

We were expecting to ride on a ‘high speed rail’. I don’t think the train went faster than 55 mph. Also, for a 2 day ride, there are no amenities and I wish us ‘foreign’ travelers were told what to expect….I would have been better prepared. No napkins in the lounge nor toilet paper. Toilets also did not always work and very FILTHY! After suffering thru the train ride….trip to Lhasa, Nepal and Bhutan was very enjoyable. People were ‘awesome’. So friendly and nice….

Hi Lori,
We don’t know the answer to this. We will ask a friend who is a travel agent in Tibet and see if we can get a response for you. The bottom line, though, is that you should ask your pediatrician, just to be safe. All the best and hope it works that you all can take a trip to Tibet together :-)

Wonderful article and well written. I just returned from a trip to China and Tibet. During my travel I took the overnight sleeper train from Beijing to Xian and had a wonderful experience. I flew to Chengdu from Xian to see the Panda s and I took Diamox 24 hours before flying to Lhasa after reading many reviews before my trip to China 125 mg 2 times per day. I flew to Lhasa with 14 in our group everyone took medience with different outcome but when we arrived into the airport everyone felt tired but we took a beautiful bus trip into Lhasa passing through tunnels and wonderful views arriving at our hotel, just going up 2 flights of stairs I was glad to get into my room and rest for 2 hours and then we had a University teacher give us a 2 hour talk on Tibet and she was from Tibet and told us the different sides of the culture which was outstanding..We had a nice meal but 1 st night we all rested and took it easy. After breakfast the next day we were going to climb the palace about 1/2 of our group made it and I am glad I had the med s I think it helped and yes there were side effects but I think it was worth it to enjoy our time in Tibet..I did think about taking the train but glad I went the way I did and maybe next time to fly to Lhasa but take the train back and to stop in Xinging and go to the Amdo which sounds like a wonderful area to see more of Tibet culture. I enjoy Lhasa and we had a wondeful guide named Nyima he really brought the culture of Tibet alive during our days in Tibet..I would highly recomend Nyima to any of my friends…Thank You

Hi, I just came back from China few weeks ago. I flied to Lhasa from Beijing. I came back to Shanghai by train. The journey sceneries are superb from Lhasa till Xining. Top Mountains covered with snow. Awesome. Total train journey (including 6 hours transit in Xining) is about 60 hours. Feel exhausted. But at the end, it was great journey.

Dear Yowangdu:
Thank you very much in deed for these data. It’s really greta to see that there are people that offer their knowledge this way
I’ll be taking the train in a month aprox. from Xining to Lhasa. I have some questions that maybe you could answer (if you have time):
Is it easy to buy the ticket either in Xining or Beijing (the same day of departure) or shall I book it in advance with some travel agency?
Would you recommend any particular side of the train (left or right) to have better views of the magnificent landscape?
Thank you very mcuh in advance and again for this valuable post
Best regards
Vicente (from Spain)

Hi Vicente,
Sorry, we are not experts about this, so definitely the best way to get this information is to contact one or two of the agencies listed on this page: http://www.yowangdu.com/tibet-travel/tibetan-travel-agents.html. They can help you! Also check out Losang at the Land of Snows, especially his Facebook page. He is very helpful to answer questions.
All the best!

Many thanks for these useful informations. We intend to take train from Chengdu to Lhasa. And after arrive Chengdu, we will take train immediately to Lhasa because we want to spend more time in Lhasa. I can see that Chengdu is lowest spot. So do we have any advice for us? Do we need to stay at Chengdu a couple of days.

Hi Tina. Hope you have a great trip. There is no need to stay in Chengdu as it is low and you won’t acclimatize. If you’ve decided to take the train, just plan to take it easy in Lhasa the first few days (as you will need to do anyway). You will acclimatize a bit on the train just as much as it seems like you would.

Do you think it is feasible to do this trip (Pekin-Lhassa) with kids 3 and 7 years old, considering that we have 3 weeks holidays and therefore time to stop in Xining for acclimatation?
Thank you for sharing these useful informations!

I would certainly advise people to spend more than just a couple of days in Xining, in my experience it takes about a week to acclimatise there, and if you go to the grasslands near Mahlo you are actually higher than Lhasa and it takes more time again. There is excellent Tibetan medicine for altitude sickness, the Tibetan hospital in Xining can help with that. And its important to eat! Many people loose their appetite but you must keep eating because your body is working harder.

Thanks so much for sharing your valuable experience, Karen :-) We would love to hear more about your time in Xining and the grasslands. We’ll contact you by email soon if that’s okay. One thing we didn’t delve into in the post above, because it was becoming monstrously long, was the fact that some of the interesting areas to visit around Xining/Siling are higher altitude than Xining and that it sounds like it is useful to acclimate at Xining altitude for a bit first. Based on our experience in Lhasa and other mountain places, we don’t need a week at 7500 feet for basic acclimatization, but since every person is different when it comes to altitude and AMS, it is valuable for people to hear your experience. Please share with us, if you would, what you experienced at Xining altitude, and how it changed over the week. We’re very curious to hear more about this Tibetan medicine for altitude sickness, which we’ve been hearing talk of a bit here and there. What do you know about it? Does it have a name? Great to hear from you, Karen, and thanks so much again for sharing your experience.

Hi again, of course you can email me, love any opportunity to talk about my travels in Amdo :) I have been four times.
I will find the name of the Tibetan medicine, the bottles I have don’t have english on them, but the main ingredient is the plant rhodiola, helps increase oxygen in the blood. There are so many wonderful things to see around that part of Amdo that taking a week to acclimatise is no hardship. Of course as you say it is different for every person and does depend on how active you are being. Last year I was in Xining for a month and then went to Mahlo for a month. I though I was very acclimatsed in Xining but still had to take a few easy days in Mahlo when I went from about 2,400 to 3,800 above sea level. But it is worth it!

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